MEAN Stack Developer

Introduction

Today, the internet is fueled with the popular tech stacks amidst the community of developers increasing day by day. The foundation stone for laying such tech stacks is evolving due to the surge of technological advancement preceding the nature of the applications required to rule the market these days. Hence, the majority of these user-centric applications are powered by the web. Thus, the developers have adapted a certain way of enhancing the applications by selecting specialized tech stacks that empower the web. We might have come across such popular job profiles using known as MERN or MEAN stack Developers. In this article, we would be focusing mainly on MEAN stack developers and what is meant by MEAN stack. Let's take it forward.

The acronym "MEAN" stands for "MongoDB Express.js AngularJS Node.js". It represents a group of technologies that are popular amongst the developers because they synergize together. The term MEAN stack is so popular because of its ability to quickly adapt the prototyping with Node.js. It allows it to use JavaScript on the frontend and the backend which can save the developers from learning different programming languages separately. Additionally, the nature of MongoDB is based on NoSQL, and therefore it allows you to alter the data without having to care about migration. It is considered quite valuable when you're trying to build an application with clear specifications. The developers prefer the MEAN stack because the community of these technologies has a lot of backend support. It is easier to find answers and hiring the best of the best developers' expert in this domain.

Let's look at the prerequisites of what a developer needs to have to get familiar with the MEAN stack.

MongoDB

• MongoDB is a cross-platform and open-source database that is written in C++. It stores data in Binary JSON format consisting of data storage in the form of key-value pairs. It is also called a NoSQL database because of its document-oriented nature. A document stored in MongoDB resembles just like the object in OOPS.
• MongoDB aspires to be the best database choice for a system where you need to manage large-sized tables with tons of data. Moreover, it is not required to update the entire table because MongoDB includes fields to manage them. With the help of MongoDB, you can develop an entire application using just one programming language i.e., JavaScript.

ExpressJS

• ExpressJS is a powerful JavaScript framework. It is mature and flexible and the scalability of this framework is loved by all the MEAN stack developers. It is an ultra-lightweight server framework that is designed to build single-page, multi-page, and hybrid web applications. The lightweight framework support adds an advantage to make use of the Pug engine to support various modules and templates.
• Additionally, ExpressJS is also known as a de-facto framework for Node.js meaning that it carries heavy inspiration from Sinatra, a popular framework for Ruby on Rails.

AngularJS

• AngularJS is a powerful open-source JavaScript framework that is maintained by Google. The main objective of this framework is to introduce you to its MVC (Model View Controller) architecture that is used in browser-based applications. This MVC makes the development and testing process easier. The framework also lets you create a smart and personalized web app that supports all the systems.
• AngularJS allows the developers to opt for HTML as template language thereby letting them extend the syntax of HTML to express the native and divergent components of your desired applications. Moreover, AngularJS possesses unique features like injection dependency and data binding methods that are used to eliminate the task of writing plenty of lines of codes and binding them into one component.

Node.js

• Node.js is a server-side JavaScript runtime environment that allows developers to create web servers and build an application on top of it. Node.js is a powerful environment that lets you run your entire small, medium, or large scaled industrial applications in a browser-free external environment without domains. It means that the applications can be configured as and when required before deploying them to the industry.
• Additionally, Node.js uses a model that follows a non-blocking and event-driven approach. This model makes it easier and efficient, lightweight, and perfect to carry out the data-intensive and real-time application that runs across various distributed systems be it on macOS, Windows, or Linux.

MEAN stack architecture

The architecture of the MEAN stack is depicted in the above image. The primary function of the shown components of MEAN stack architecture is as follows:

Angular JS: The main task of angular is to accept requests and display the results to end-users.

NodeJS: It handles the requests constituting server and client.

Express JS: Makes database requests and fetches responses.

MongoDB: Used for storing and retrieving data.

To elaborate the procedure, the working methodology of the MERN stack is based on the following concept.

• First and foremost, the client creates a request which is gathered by AngularJS.
• After the above step, the request moves to Node.js where it is parsed.
• The next step involves the presence of ExpressJS that makes calls to MongoDB to set or get data.
• Now, Node.js returns the requests to the client, and AngularJS on the client-side displays the results fetched from the processed request by MongoDB.

Skillset of MEAN stack developers

• Mean stack developers should work on the Front-end and Back-end processes. A MEAN stack developer should be able to work on both the back-end and front-end collaboratively.
• MEAN stack developers should possess the ability to understand and work with HTML & CSS.
• A MEAN stack developer is expected to have the awareness of design architecture guidelines and a basic understanding of programming templates.
• Knowledge of cloud technologies, continuous integration, and web development is a plus to get going with the MERN stack.
• A MEAN stack developer is expected to have the fundamental knowledge of database architecture.
• Knowledge of SDLC and experience in the Agile environment plus the collaboration of the IT team into building dynamic support system based on business objective is highly desired to be a called a MEAN stack developer.
• Lastly, the wannabe MEAN stack developer should deliver hands-on experience on MongoDB, Express, Angular, and Node.